Ron Peno, Died Pretty frontman and leader of his own band The Superstitions, has been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing treatment in Melbourne.

Died Pretty was scheduled to play festival shows with Bryan Ferry and two gigs of their own in Australia this month. Died Pretty's management announced Ron's diagnosis via their Facebook page:

Died Pretty Management sadly advises that due to ill health all upcoming Died Pretty shows have been cancelled. Ron has been diagnosed with oesophageal cancer and will be commencing immediate treatment. Please direct any messages of support via this Facebook page and they will be forwarded to Ron. We know everyone will be hoping for Ron's speedy recovery.

Penny Ikinger is heading to Europe for some exclusive shows in France and Spain to promote her latest album "Tokyo" in March 2019. Penny will perform in France with musicians Dimi Dero (drums) and Vinz Guilluy (bass). They will also hit the studio with Jim Diamond (The Dirtbombs) as producer to record a new brand new track. She will perform solo in Basque Country (Spain).

Recorded in Japan, "Tokyo" is Ikinger’s third solo album and is an international collaboration with legendary guitarist and songwriter Deniz Tek (Radio Birdman) and musicians from the Tokyo psychedelic rock underground. "Tokyo" was released on Kerosene Records (Japan) and Off The Hip Records (Australia) and launched in Tokyo and in Melbourne (at Melbourne Museum’s Nocturnal) by Penny Ikinger with her Japanese band The Silver Bells featuring, Masami Kawaguchi on guitar.

]]>barman@i94bar.com (The Barman)NewsSun, 17 Feb 2019 14:45:53 +1100Hey Sydney: Make a date with The Golden Rail http://www.i94bar.com/news/hey-sydney-make-a-date-with-the-golden-rail
http://www.i94bar.com/news/hey-sydney-make-a-date-with-the-golden-railThe Golden Rail are bringing their consumate Mellbourne via Perth guitar pop to Sydney for two shows this month to launch their new album “Sometimes When”.

As direct participants (or side players) in The Palisades, The Rainyard, Header, Summer Suns, DM3 and, more recently, The Jangle Band, The Golden Rail are eminently qualified to give Sydney a jangle pop lesson, and you can catch them at two shows.

Friday, February 16 finds them at a new venue, The Butcher’s Block, In Dulwich Hill where they’ll be supported by Inner Western Delta locals The Smart Folk. The next afternoon, The Golden Rail will play Gasoline Pony with John Kennedy’s 68 Comeback Special. You can hear and buy the album here.

]]>barman@i94bar.com (The Barman)NewsSun, 10 Feb 2019 14:49:56 +1100Extra dates added to Alejandro Escovedo tourhttp://www.i94bar.com/news/extra-dates-added-to-alejandro-escovedo-tour
http://www.i94bar.com/news/extra-dates-added-to-alejandro-escovedo-tourThe great Alejandro Escovedo (The Nuns, solo) is coming to Australia and New Zealsnd in March and two more Aussie shows have been announced. He’s doing extra gigs at Brisbane’s Junk Bar (early and late shows) and the Camelot Lounge in Sydney. What’s more, he’ll be accompanied on guitar by Tim Rogers of You Am I.

Escovedo's new album "The Crossing" features goes spots by James Williamson (Iggy and the Stooges) and Cheetah Chrome (Dead Boys.) His Australasian tour is stripped-down but the clip below gives you an idea of the power of the man's music. Full dates and ticketing information in the Read More link.

]]>barman@i94bar.com (The Barman)NewsSun, 20 Jan 2019 13:41:39 +1100Sydney going Green over Spidershttp://www.i94bar.com/news/sydney-going-green-over-spiders
http://www.i94bar.com/news/sydney-going-green-over-spidersFor 20 years, Sydney’s Lime Spiders cut a swathe through audiences in Australia - and for that matter, right around the world.

Beginning as acolytes of the ‘60s acid punk sound, the band developed its own hard rock style, signed to a major label and toured extensively, attracting praise from the likes of Jello Biafra, Iggy Pop and Joey Ramone. Three studio albums and a live record attest to the band’s power.

The Green Spiders could be called the “sequel” to the Lime Spiders. Featuring three-quarters of the Spiders’ most prolific line-up,

The Green Spiders were born in 2018, out of a desire by the members to play together again. Their originals are written or co-written by Ged Corben, Tony Bambach and Tom Corben and naturally include a generous portion of Lime Spiders material.

There’s also a serving of obscure 60’s guitar rock/pop and a dash of 70’s punk.

Ripley Hood (Mushroom Planet, Funhouse, Gun Control, Brando Rising and the Four Stooges) fills out the Green Spiders line-up as lead vocalist.

Their February 16 show at Marrickville Bowling Club will be their debut Sydney gig.

They’ll be joined by power pop supremos The Loose Pills, now in the throes of completing their second album and deservedly one of Sydney’s best live bands.

Making its debut will be The Second Chance, a collection of Detroit rock veterans gathered around vocalist Pete Patterson (ex-Mother Jones, Melting Skyscrapers and Rattlesnake Shake.)

]]>barman@i94bar.com (The Barman)NewsFri, 04 Jan 2019 10:27:19 +1100Still living, The Beasts emerge with an album and a tourhttp://www.i94bar.com/news/still-living-the-beasts-emerge-with-an-album-and-a-tour
http://www.i94bar.com/news/still-living-the-beasts-emerge-with-an-album-and-a-tour

After an extremely emotional final performance with the Beasts of Bourbon, Tex Perkins hit upon the idea of getting all of the band’s members, past and present into a recording studio with no particular agenda other than to do just that.

It was more of a celebratory thing he had in mind than anything. Sadly, bassist Brian Hooper didn’t make it along as he passed away a week after the Beasts’ last show.

Assembled in Melbourne's Soundpark Studio a couple of weeks later were, Charlie Owen, Boris Sujdovic, Tony Pola, Spencer Jones, Kim Salmon and Tex Perkins. They were unprepared, save for some some sketchy ideas, loose ends and a couple of covers. With limited time the band knocked together a collection of jams pretty much true to the crazy modus operandi employed back when “The Axeman’s Jazz” got laid down in that fateful eight-hour session in 1983.

]]>barman@i94bar.com (The Barman)NewsFri, 07 Dec 2018 21:04:51 +1100Wreckless Eric is having one for the roadhttp://www.i94bar.com/news/wreckless-eric-is-having-one-for-the-road
http://www.i94bar.com/news/wreckless-eric-is-having-one-for-the-roadAfter more than two weeks of raved-about Australian shows, English punk-era singer-songwriter Wreckless Eric heads home shortly. But before he does – and after he plays his sole WA show at the Rosemount (with guest Joe Bludge) on Monday November 26 - he’ll be playing one last gig in Melbourne, this Tuesday November 27 at the Merri Creek Tavern in Northcote.

]]>barman@i94bar.com (The Barman)NewsSat, 24 Nov 2018 21:04:17 +1100First Australasian tour announced for Texan legend Alejandro Escovedohttp://www.i94bar.com/news/first-australasian-tour-announced-for-texan-legend-alejandro-escovedo
http://www.i94bar.com/news/first-australasian-tour-announced-for-texan-legend-alejandro-escovedoLegendary Mexican-American singer-songwriter Alejandro Escovedo will tour Australia for the first time in March 2018 on the back of his acclaimed new immigration-themed album The Crossing.

Escovedo is a seminal figure in Texan music and one of the most acclaimed American songwriters of his generation. He’s a recipient of the Americana Music Association's Lifetime Achievement Award and will be honored with the Townes Van Zandt Songwriter Award at next year’s Austin Music Awards.

Alejandro has released 11 solo albums and contributed to numerous others, as both band member and guest. His songs have been recorded by the likes of Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Ryan Adams, Cowboy Junkies, and Calexico, and he’s shared stages with everyone from Bruce Springsteen to John Prine to Mott The Hoople’s Ian Hunter.

Alejandro’s latest album, "The Crossing", released in September 2018 on Yep Roc and one of the most acclaimed of his career, looks at matters of immigration and the broken Promised Land that is America through the focused and unflinching poetry Alejandro is known for.

It includes cameos from underground rock royalty in the personages of MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, Stooges guitarist James Williamson and Peter Perrett and John Perry of The Only Ones, Texan country great Joe Ely and acclaimed novelist and Richmond Fontaine/Delines songwriter Willy Vlautin.

REM’s Peter Buck and the Velvet Underground’s John Cale have both served as Alejandro’s sidemen in addition to being his producers, a role also filled by legendary Bowie and T.Rex producer Tony Visconti, who produced a run of three albums for Alejandro spanning 2008-12.

High-energy veterans Senor No from Basque Country (don't call it Spain) are embarking on their first Australian tour this month but their Anipoddean connection already runs deep.

Senor No was born in Donostia/San Sebastian, Basque Country in 1993, after the dissolution of the seminal Spanish group La Perrera. The band released their first LP with No Tomorrow Records in 1994 and toured Spain and surrounding areas relentlessly while recording five more albums and more than a dozen singles.

Senor No was the very first release for the seminal Spanish label Bang! Records which is a label responsible of releasing some of Australian best bands overseas.

]]>barman@i94bar.com (The Barman)NewsSun, 04 Nov 2018 17:51:29 +1100Stars line-up to play with PP Arnold on her encore Oz tourhttp://www.i94bar.com/news/stars-line-up-to-play-with-pp-arnold-on-her-encore-oz-tour
http://www.i94bar.com/news/stars-line-up-to-play-with-pp-arnold-on-her-encore-oz-tourSixties soul and Swinging London icon PP Arnold returns to Australia in November and December for more shows with her all star band.

In case you haven't heard, that band would be Tim Rogers, Andy Kent and Russell Hopkinson of You Am I, Talei & Eliza Wolfgramm and James Black, and she'll also play select shows with the Rockwiz Orchestra.

Her recent run through Australia elicitted rave reviews - including this one.

Talk about Wreckless Eric and what immediately comes to mind is his enduring hit "Whole Wide World" – covered in stadiums and sheds from Aberdeen to Alabama – but there’s a whole lot more to the story than just that.

With more than 40 years of recording and touring behind him he shuns the dictates of nostalgia and doesn’t do comebacks for the simple reason that he never went away. Except maybe where the Antipodes are concerned and where he'll be touring for the first time in 28 years in November.

Signed-up member of the Melbourne Music Mafia, Malcolm Hill, is premiering a new single with his band Malcolm Hill and Live Flesh.

"Cosmic Love", and its companion song "Anybody Seen My Girl", are a digital precursors to a full album later this star from Geelong-born Hill, a writer and staple of the 1980s Melbourne underground music scene with Buick KBT and Head Undone. Hill has guested with the likes of Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes, Nick Cave and The Dirty Three so he's well-credentialled to say the least.

]]>barman@i94bar.com (The Barman)NewsSat, 06 Oct 2018 13:14:40 +1000Tamam Shud returns with short run of summer showshttp://www.i94bar.com/news/tamam-shud-returns-with-short-run-of-summer-shows
http://www.i94bar.com/news/tamam-shud-returns-with-short-run-of-summer-showsWhere were you, and what were you doing when Australian surf and psychedlelic legends Tamam Shud last played some of their tripped-out live shows on the University Scene during the acid movement of the '70’s?

Most people probably wouldn’t remember and those who do probably weren’t there.

However, everyone recalls Tamam Shud for their input and timeless tracks contributed to Australian surf film classics, “Hot Generation, Evolution and the seminal Morning of the Earth”.

It wasn’t long ago Tamam Shud were onboard for the sold-out national tour for "A Long Way to the Top" arena spectaculars and "Delightful Rain: A celebration of Australian Surf Music" shows.

More recently the band has undertaken a brief East Coast tour in 2017 with Andrew Kidman & The Windy Hills, played a double-header with Buffalo Revisited and did sporadic shows on Sydney's northern beaches and in its inner-west.

The Shud has just wrapped up recording a new LP and with this release, an opportunity to celebrate their latest recording.

On 20 April, 2018 the world of rock’n’roll lost one its most charismatic and talented soldiers, Brian Henry Hooper. Best known for his work in the Beasts of Bourbon and Kim Salmon and the Surrealists, Hooper’s resume extends to stints with Charlie Marshall’s Body Electric, Rowland S Howard and Andre Williams.

When he was diagnosed with lung cancer in November 2017, Hooper was mid-way through putting the finishing touches on his new album, What Would I Know?, one of two solo records he'd recorded over the previous two years at Andrew McGee’s Empty Room Studios in Nagambie.

]]>barman@i94bar.com (Patrick Emery)NewsSat, 06 Oct 2018 12:42:53 +1000Bellissimo! A new Radio Birdman book hits the shelves http://www.i94bar.com/news/bellissimo-a-new-radio-birdman-book-hits-the-shelves
http://www.i94bar.com/news/bellissimo-a-new-radio-birdman-book-hits-the-shelvesItalian journalist and occasional I-94 Bar correspondent Roberto Calabro has had a Radio Birdman book published.

It's called "Radio Birdman. Il rito del suono selvaggio" (that would be “Radio Birdman: the ritual of the wild sound" for non-Italian speakers) and it’s published through Tuttle Edizioni.

Not just a historical recounting, it covers the whole story of the legendary Sydney band from the early days up to now with chapters about The Visitors, the New Christs and the work of individual members.

It’s only in Italian right now but Roberto is keen to have it translated and published in English. You can order a copy here. Comprendere?